Sanford Shapiro looks at The Churchill School (NY)
Monday, January 16th, 2006
Sanford Shapiro looks at The Churchill School (NY)
© 2006 Sanford Shapiro
The Churchill School began in 1972 for elementary children with SLD/specific learning disabilities and has grown into a middle school program (added in 1986) and then a high school in 2000. Most of the students enrolled are those who have language-learning disabilities, some with attention weaknesses and to a lesser degree, kids with what they describe as perceptual motor weaknesses. Students come to this Manhattan school near the East River from all over the five boroughs and the 396 K-12 students are broken down into a pretty typical 2/1 boy to girl ratio (common to many “LD” schools).
Being in Manhattan creates some unique campus needs that the Churchill School satisfies to an impressive degree. There is a lot of natural light throughout many of the key areas of the building, notably in its 3000+ square foot library. There are impressive science labs, 3 art studios, a 4300 square foot gym, beautiful computer labs and a great sky-top playground on a roof. I also watched an applied science/horticulture class with students immersed in activity within a wonderful greenhouse/garden area within a large sky-lit room. The floors are color-coded signifying activities and age levels of kids they are each for, and while that may sound a bit institutional I found it created a warm and safe feel.
The curriculum approaches center around reading development through Wilson Reading Program, and there are fluency programs (also explicit phonetics) used in the K-5 groupings, which are largely un-graded clusters based on age and profile. Lots of art, computer access and athletics round out the remedial aspect of the school. There were 2 computer labs, each with all new (at the time) Macs and Smart Boards. The library also had lots of new Macs all around.
Classes were generally in the 12:1 ratio and were staffed with a teacher and an assistant. The school employs these head teachers with Masters degrees either in the content area taught or specifically in Special Education. Occupational therapists, speech language pathologists and counselors are available at the school for differing levels of individual needs and a pretty easy collaborative nature amongst the faculty seemed the order of the day. Each division of age groupings has a learning specialist, specifically trained in the language development area. The assistant teachers go through a training program that often leads them to becoming a lead teacher over the course of time. I got the sense that there was a fairly high level of professional accountability and feedback to and from instructors.
Related at this site: The Churchill School
Do you know if there is a school In Texas similar to The Churchill School?
Lori, I don’t know if you’ve looked at the write ups I did for Texas schools (there’s four I’ve written about) but if not check them out and get back to me. If you have read them already and you’re asking which one is most similar to Churchill, I would say you should look at Shelton or Winston in Dallas. They’re much different in size but have some overlapping similarities to Churchill. When I was in Texas, due to a freak ice storm I didn’t get to see Rawson-Saunders School in Austin and that would be worth looking into as well.
sanfordmshapiro@gmail.com
Margaret,
The Churchill School is an excellent independent school in Manhattan, for kids with learning disabilities. I’m not sure if you read what I wrote about the school but http://www.ldresources.org/?p=1203 is the link to it. Go on their web site and give them a call to arrange a visit and see first-hand.
Why churchill school has no space for upper grades.
However they have a open house for upper grade 6 to 12.
Last pass two years I have requested an application from
NY schoolfor upper grades.
Hello, do you know if the churchill school accepts students on the spectrum (mildly autistc?) Thanks
Karen,
I think that would depend on several factors so, best suggestion is to go visit, bring in his/her testing report and see what they say and what you think.
Having high functioning autism means to me that his/her language expression is ‘decent’ and their social reasoning and skills are not too impaired. You can see already that that type of description can get you in the ballpark, but most likely doesn’t do justice to your child’s strengths or challenges.
One note regarding the testing evaluation report. If you feel solid that the report doesn’t paint enough of a clear picture, sells him/her short, then think of other data to bring in at some point (written work, photos, etc.)
Best of luck.
Sanford
Check with them directly.